Standing in the light 'til it's over
by obedientlittlevictor
Summary: Out of our minds, someone had to draw a line. We'll be coming back for you one day. "No matter our odds, I've always been all in."
1. Chapter 1

Deeks slides the box across the dusty cement floor the few feet between them to Kensi with an unfiltered desperation overtaking his whole demeanor. He waits a split second for the recognition to reach her eyes, and his whine of choked, hysterical laughter threatens to spill out when they go as wide as dinner plates on her face.

"Hey, Kens. Marry me?"

If he doesn't ask now, he may never get the chance. It isn't so much a question as it is a demand, a frantic and breathless plea in the midst of a shitty situation. It definitely isn't how he wanted his proposal to her to go either, but life never really goes the way you plan it, now does it?

Kensi had her own little fairytale ideas of this moment. Maybe something with the Eiffel Tower as the backdrop, a little wine in both of them, just enough to make the moment so carefree that she wouldn't hold back her little squeal of joy when he got on one knee and flipped open the small velvet box. Now that she really thinks about it, she should have realized how unrealistic that little fantasy was. That just wasn't them.

This, though, this exact moment is so _them_, the perfect essence of Kensi and Deeks, Deeks and Kensi. A firefight, a life-and-death scenario, trapped with little-to-no likelihood of escaping, stubbornly refusing to back down without full assurance that the other will survive. They might not get to experience perfection in their lives, but they get real. That had to be enough.

Kensi blinks back her shimmery tears and sets her gun down next to her. She has three bullets in the clip, one in the chamber. Even if she shot every living and quickly moving human target dead, there are far more than four assailants trying to gun down her and her partner in the dingy abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Los Angeles. Deeks is down to his last bullet, the knife strapped to his belt, and the best improvised crowbar weapon of their time.

The plain black box at Kensi's knee reveals a simple solitaire diamond set in gold engraved with vines and tiny diamonds along the edge of the ring. It's obvious that the engagement ring cost him a fortune.

"Had this baby since the day after you left for Afghanistan, believe it or not. I swore when I got you back, _when_, not _if_, that I would man up and make you mine. Hell, you have never _not_ been mine, whether or not you want to admit it. And I'm yours, Kens, always have been. Always will be," Deeks pauses to gauge Kensi's reaction and is met with a hurried nod to continue. Kensi couldn't force words out of her mouth even if she could think of any.

"Almost asked at the ice skating rink, I had the ring in my pocket even then. You're it for me, Kensi. I know you said didn't want much fanfare with all of this, so," Deeks finishes in a whisper, but his voices catches at the end and he doesn't bother trying to say anything else.

They both know it's best to try to keep quiet anyway. Their hiding place behind two crates is far from ideal, and after only narrowly escaping their last shootout in the parking lot, they know it'll only be minutes before the bad guys discover their little corner of hell.

Kensi is still speechless, staring helplessly between Deeks and the diamond catching the slim ray of sunlight through a broken window. He cocks his lips into a smirk that appears more at ease than it could naturally have been in that moment and she returns it with her own gentle smile.

Enemy gunfire breaks the serenity of the moment, but not before Kensi slides the ring on her left ring finger. The bullet holes from the terrorists' automatic rifle carve a straight line into the cement wall above their heads and they know that their time is out. Deeks shuffles his sore and bleeding body to press against Kensi for the last time. She flicks the safety off her gun.

"All in?" His voice isn't above a breath this time and Kensi meets his eyes with her signature fire and certainty. Deeks flashes a radiant smile that clashes with the tears streaming down his face before she says a word. He already knows her answer, but she says it anyway, her lips tenderly skimming against his.

"No matter our odds, I've always been all in."

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><p><strong>Author's Note: Thank you for your thoughts. <strong>**Title from We'll Be Coming Back by Calvin Harris.**


	2. Fold

_Enemy gunfire breaks the serenity of the moment, but not before Kensi slides the ring on her left ring finger. The bullet holes from the terrorists' automatic rifle carve a straight line into the cement wall above their heads and they know that their time is out. Deeks shuffles his sore and bleeding body to press against Kensi for the last time. She flicks the safety off her gun._

_"All in?" His voice isn't above a breath this time and Kensi meets his eyes with her signature fire and certainty. Deeks flashes a radiant smile that clashes with the tears streaming down his face before she says a word. He already knows her answer, but she says it anyway, her lips tenderly skimming against his._

_"No matter our odds, I've always been all in."_

"Even if our odds end up forcing us to fold?" Deeks whispers, his voice breathless and cracking. It brings a fresh round of tears to Kensi's eyes because she understands what he was trying to say. The hand they'd been dealt is shit, if they are keeping up with this poker metaphor of being 'all in'.

"You know, Deeks, when you fold your cards, it means that you're willingly giving up on the hand that you've been dealt," Kensi replies hurriedly. She could hear the orders and the stomping boots from more men entering the warehouse.

They keep their eyes locked, save for Deeks's glance at the ring on Kensi's finger, and Kensi allows a smirk to grace her face. Deeks matches it when he catches on to what she's saying.

"And why in the world would Badass Blye willingly give up on anything?"

"I'm gonna take your name, you know," Kensi decides, as if they had all the time in the world to decide these little marriage details. Details to a marriage that probably won't end up happening, the way that things are going.

She checks her weapon one more time and adjust the knife that she has at her hip. Deeks cocks his gun and the lone 9mm bullet pops out. He presents it to her in the palm of his hand like a gift and she loads it into her clip. Five bullets, two knives, and one crowbar for a battle to the death, against twenty terrorists' high powered assault rifles. Sounds like a fair fight.

"What if I wanted to take yours?"

Even staring death directly in the face, Deeks still finds a way to make her laugh. Kensi brushes the tears from her eyes and grabs his jaw to kiss him one last time.

"I love you, Marty Deeks."

"I love you too, Kensi Blye." Deeks swallows thickly and adjusts his grip on his knife. The footsteps are close enough now that Kensi nods and gives Deeks the signal to go for the kill.

If they were going down, this wouldn't be a fold. There would be no willingly giving up in this game.

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><p>Callen is the one that finds them, and the sight makes him vomit on the spot. Kensi and Deeks are covered head-to-toe in blood, weapons scattered from their hands around their bodies.<p>

And around the bodies of fourteen of their terrorists.

He knows it isn't much of a comfort to know that Kensi and Deeks went down fighting; they still went down, after all. And when the glimmer of the new diamond on Kensi's hand catches the light from the window, Callen loses all faith in any kind of god.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: There will be one more chapter, an Alternate Ending that is far happier! Thanks for reading and reviewing.<strong>


	3. Royal Flush

_Enemy gunfire breaks the serenity of the moment, but not before Kensi slides the ring on her left ring finger. The bullet holes from the terrorists' automatic rifle carve a straight line into the cement wall above their heads and they know that their time is out. Deeks shuffles his sore and bleeding body to press against Kensi for the last time. She flicks the safety off her gun._

_"All in?" His voice isn't above a breath this time and Kensi meets his eyes with her signature fire and certainty. Deeks flashes a radiant smile that clashes with the tears streaming down his face before she says a word. He already knows her answer, but she says it anyway, her lips tenderly skimming against his._

_"No matter our odds, I've always been all in."_

Kensi closes her eyes in an attempt to better hear the approaching footsteps of their terrorist targets. She feels the weight of her gun in her possibly broken hand and already knows that her shots might not be as perfect as usual, and they need nothing less than perfect. Another thought flits through her mind, just briefly enough for her to remember the night terrors that accompanied the first time she killed a man with a knife so long ago, how personal that kill was, forcibly drawing her blade through his throat.

"Trade with me," Kensi orders abruptly. Deeks shoots her a questioning glare as Kensi dumps her magazine in his hand and snags the serrated blade from his. "My hand might be broken."

Deeks starts to object, but loads his trusted Beretta with Kensi's bullets instead. She knows that he suspects something else, but the approaching sounds don't allow for a full interrogation.

"They're splitting up," Deeks mouths as he looks under the crate they're hidden behind. Kensi motions that she's taking the two men on the east side, and that he should lay low until she's finished. Deeks shakes his head furiously, and Kensi marvels at how well they've learned to communicate without words.

Kensi presses a finger against her lips and Deeks throws his head back, annoyed. It's the best approach they have, to silently take out the closer ones with a knife instead of giving away their position with a gunshot. They both understand it. Neither like the plan, but they get it.

Deeks grabs Kensi's uninjured wrist to bring her down for one last kiss. "Kiss of Death Kensi," Deeks murmurs humorlessly and gives a wry smile. He doesn't want those to be the last words he ever says to her, so he rushes out "I love you" in a fast breath before Kensi nods and moves toward their terrorists.

"Shoot only when necessary," Kensi instructs, but Deeks already knows.

He watches her black boots step silently against the concrete floor, Kensi pausing behind a shelf in wait for the first man to pass her. She doesn't hesitate when she digs her knife into the soft flesh of his neck, and she carefully slides him in a sitting position. She holsters her knife for a moment to sling his rifle across her shoulders for later.

Kensi takes out the second man just as efficiently and quietly as the first, cutting just the right arteries. Slinging the second assault rifle over her shoulder and tucking a handgun into the back of her jeans, Kensi slides back to Deeks's spot behind the crates.

"What do you think, partner?" Kensi passes him the second rifle. "Nice and quiet," she gestures toward the knife, "or a shoot out?"

They are both lying on the ground, looking under the crates at the dozen new boot-clad feet sweeping the warehouse.

"We've never been much for going without a bang, huh?" Deeks takes a deep breath and holds up three fingers, two, one.

They leap up in perfect sync and fire a line clear through the torsos of the men before any even had a chance to react. Kensi grabs Deeks's wrist to take better cover behind thick metal cabinets to wait for their next round of terrorists.

Their intel said this particular terrorist cell had at least 20 members present at all times. Down eight, there could be at least 12 more. They don't have to wait long for the remaining terrorists to storm the building, but Kensi and Deeks are more than prepared. Half go down without the chance to realize where the hiding spot is, but the other six take cover of their own directly opposite of Kensi and Deeks.

"Seems like a good, old-fashioned stand-off," Deeks quips before standing to lay a few rounds into the wooden crates. The scream following his shots indicates he hit at least one.

Kensi can feel every nerve of her body thrumming with adrenaline, and she can feel Deeks's body moving restlessly as well. "Would it be too much to hope for–"

"NCIS drop your weapons!"

Deeks automatically drops his hand from the rifle and stares disbelieving at Kensi. Their terrorists must actually have dropped their weapons, because no more shots fire through the dusty building.

"You guys okay?" Callen's voice echoes throughout the warehouse, bouncing off the walls and the shelves.

Kensi whips her head around to face Deeks, who wears a matching astonished expression. She somehow finds enough strength to call out a simple, "Yeah."

"Wedding. Right now. We do this right now," Deeks blurts out, his eyes so dilated from the adrenaline that Kensi can barely make out the ocean blue ring. Kensi nods fervently and throws herself dramatically into his arms. She wraps her legs around his waist and doesn't stop nodding her head into his neck in fear that this moment isn't actual reality.

Callen rounds the corner with another question on the tip of his tongue when he finds them wrapped up in each other. When the glimmer of the new diamond on Kensi's finger catches the light from the window, Callen shoots a quick prayer to any higher deity that is listening that Kensi and Deeks made it out alive.

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><p><strong>Author's Note: I couldn't bear to leave my babies only in complete tragedy, so you can pick your ending from Chapter 2 (Fold) or Chapter 3 (Royal Flush). This was such a fun story for me to write. Thank you for reading and reviewing! <strong>


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